Troubling a Star InuYasha Version
by iNuQTpIe
Summary: For her sixteenth birthday, Kagome Higurashi is given a trip to Antarctica. But why is she stranded on an iceberg?


Hello everyone! This is my new story, Troubling a Star. I really needed a break from Unexpected Encounters, maybe get some creative juices flowing. I'm hoping people like this story. I think it's pretty good, but to tell you the truth I didn't make it up.

I guess you want to start reading, so that's all!

Enjoy the Chapter!

Declaimer: I do not own InuYasha or the book Troubling a Star. Those are Rumiko Takahashi's and Madeleine L'Engle's. Please don't sue me. I don't have any money anyway, so it wouldn't be worth it.

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Chapter One

_The iceberg was not a large one, but it was big enough so that the seal and I were not crowded, and I was grateful for that. The seal was asleep after its night of hunting. It was a crab-eater seal, and crab eaters live on krill, not crab, and as far as I know do not ear people. I willed it to stay asleep and not even notice that Kagome Higurashi was sharing its iceberg, which was floating majestically in the dark and icy waters of the Antarctic Ocean, or that my heart was beating wildly with terror._

_ The sun was out and the sky was high and blue and cloudless. I was shivering uncontrollably despite my long winter underwear, turtleneck, heavy sweater, and bright red parka. I had on lined blue jeans with yellow waterproof pants over them. I wore three pair of socks under green rubber boots. I was highly visible-if there had been anyone around to see me._

_ I tried to control my panic, to assess my situation. Several things could happen. I could be missed and someone would come for me. That was my brightest hope. But I had to face the possibility that nobody would find me in this vast space, and that I would ultimately freeze to death. Or the iceberg might overturn, as they sometimes so, and I would be plunged into the water and die quickly from hypothermia. _

_I looked around me in all directions. There were dozens more icebergs, many with seals on them. There was a hunched shadow of land on one horizon. No sigh of human life. In the water I saw three penguins flashing by, heading for land. Penguins fly in the water, rather than in air. I watched them until I could not see them any longer. _

_They say that drowning people relive their entire lives in a flash._

_I'd been on the iceberg only a few minutes, long enough to be terrified, but not long enough to despair. That would come later._

How did I get to be on an iceberg in Antarctic waters in January, which is summer-but even summer is cold in that land of unremitting ice. It went back a few months to those last weeks of summer before school starts. I was still fifteen then, feeling lost and alien, though I had yet to learn what being truly alien feels like.

My family and I had come home to our little village of Thornhill, after a year away. My adored grandfather was dead. The only really good thing in my life was that I'd see InuYasha soon, InuYasha Takahashi, who'd had a summer job in the marine biology lab with my older brother, Bankotsu. InuYasha and I had become friends during the summer, and if the friendship meant more to me than it did to InuYasha, well, I would just have to live with that. I knew that some of the time I was only Bankotsu's kid sister in InuYasha's eyes, but there were other times when it's a lot more than that.

In another week, Bankotsu would be going back to M.I.T., and Rin and

I would be in the regional high school, Rin as an eighth-grader, and I'd be starting my junior year. Our little brother, Sota, would still be in the village school.

It all should have been normal and okay, but I'd been away for a year and I'd grown and changed, and even before school started I felt I no longer belonged. So when InuYasha called from New York to say he was spending a weekend with his Aunt Kaede in nearby Clovenford before flying to California to college and would it be all right if he came for dinner on Friday, it was as though the sun had suddenly come out after a foggy day. He arrived around six-thirty, driving up in an old and beautiful Bentley, much to Bankotsu's envy. I was sort was sorting laundry, one of my least favorite chores, but I kept on folding clothes, rather than rushing out to join Bankotsu and Sota, who were admiring the great old car.

The evening was warm, and I had on my best shorts and a clean blouse, which I'd ironed. I'd have dressed up more than that, but I knew Rin would be at me. My little sister and I do not always see eye to eye.

When InuYasha finally came in, he kissed me, or would have if Buyo, our cat, hadn't been all over him, trying to jump on him, flicking his tail, greeting InuYasha with all kinds of special affection. InuYasha managed to shove him down in a gentle sort of way, and kissed me again. But then he kissed my mother and Rin, too. Then everybody talked at once, more or less, until my father came home from admitting a patient to the hospital. ((A/N I know Kagome doesn't have a dad, in the actual anime and manga anyway, but bear with me…)) And finally we were all sitting around the dinner table, and that felt right and good.

When everybody had been served, InuYasha said, "Hey, I have terrific news."

We looked at him

"I've been given a grant to go to Antarctica next semester."

"You mean now?" Rin asked.

"No, not this semester. Next semester, in December."

Our father raised his eyebrows questioningly. "Why Antarctica?"

InuYasha grinned at him. "Well, Dr. Higurashi, I am a marine-biology major, and it's a major opportunity. I'll be working at LeNoir, one of the small U.S. stations."

"I thought you were into starfish and dolphins," Rin said.

"There'll probably be a few of those at Takahashi Point, where the station is, but mostly I'll be working with penguins."

Mother asked, "Takahashi Point?"

InuYasha grinned again. "Actually, it's named after my uncle. He's probably the reason I'm a marine biologist. He made a couple expeditions to Antarctica, and he died in an accident while he was out there."

"Are you named after him?" Rin asked.

"Yup. Actually, I'm InuYasha III. ((A/N hehehe… wow… that's weird…)) My great-uncle, the banker, was InuYasha I. InuYasha Takahashi, the marine biologist, was InuYasha II. And I'm InuYasha III. Listen, Kagome, Bankotsu's coming over in the morning, but how about I pick you up in the afternoon, maybe a little before four, and take you to Clovenford to meet my Aunt Kaede? I really think you two would like each other."

"Sure," I said. "I'd love to." I'd love to do anything with InuYasha.

My father smiled at him. "Your Aunt Kaede is one of my patients, and one of my favorite ones. I agree with you, Kagome will enjoy her."

"And she'll enjoy Kagome."

"They'll be good for each other," my father said.

But I had never met Aunt Kaede- if I'd never read InuYasha II's diary and found his letters-

Wait, Kagome. It's no good getting hind-sighting.

After dinner InuYasha said he had to get back to Clovenford to Aunt Kaede, who was very old and retired early, and Bankotsu and I went out to the garage to wave off, with Buyo at our heels. Waving people off is a sort of tradition in our family.

Before he got into the Bentley, InuYasha put his arm about my waist. "I know you miss you grandfather, Kagome."

"Yeah. A lot."

"He was a special person. One reason I want you to meet Aunt Kaede is that she reminds me of your grandfather. She's an amazing old lady."

"I look forward to it." I thought he might kiss me goodbye, but Bankotsu was right there.

"Good night, you two," InuYasha said. "It's been a great evening."

"See you tomorrow," I said, trying to sound casual.

"Sure. See you."

I watched after his car as he drove down the road, and, and Bankotsu went around the corner of the house to get Buyo. I started to go after them, but stopped and looked up at the sky, crisp and clear and full of stars. I was home in the place where I had been born and grown up, and I responded to the beauty of the night sky and the great old maples and oaks, and I was lonely, a kind of loneliness that hurt like a toothache.

I shook myself and headed back to the house. I was going to see InuYasha the next day. Wasn't that enough?

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He came for me a little before three-thirty, and I was ready and waiting. I'd put on a flowered cotton skirt and another clean cotton blouse, much as I hate ironing.

Mother asked InuYasha if he'd like to stay for dinner again when he brought me home, and he said he'd enjoy that. He and Bankotsu had had lunch with Aunt Kaede, and she was usually tired by evening and wanted to eat quietly and go to bed. He'd have to double-check with the chauffeur that it was all right to use the car.

I'd forgotten that a world with people who had chauffeurs still existed. But there's a section of Clovenford that's old and rich, with great nineteenth-century mansions and people who actually had servant problems. Thornhill is older than Clovenford. Our house was built in the middle of the eighteenth century, and it sags comfortably, all the boards slanting toward the big central chimney. One problem my mother's never had is a servant problem.

"See you later then," Mother said, and InuYasha and I went out through the kitchen door and the garage.

"You'll like my Aunt Kaede- great-aunt-" InuYasha said. "She's ninety and occasionally gets a little absentminded, but mostly she's terrific and interested in all kinds of things."

It was a gorgeous pre-autumn day. Everything was still green, a bit dusty, because we needed rain. The roadsides were yellow with golden rod, and occasionally a maple would be tipped with red or orange. We drove downhill, across the river, and then back up into the hills again. We passed the road to the hospital where my father's on the staff, and turned onto a wide street with houses set far back, and green lawns carefully manicured.

"Elm Street," InuYasha said. "No elms, of course."

"Lots of maples, though," I said. "These are beautiful ones. Rin's passionate about the way we aren't taking care of the trees on our planet-you know Rin.

"She's right," InuYasha said, "though we didn't exactly cause Dutch elm disease. Here we are."

InuYasha's Aunt Kaede's house was large, white with black shutters, and a widow's walk. InuYasha stopped the car in front of a picket fence with a wrought-iron gate. The gateposts were topped with carved pineapples. "The sign of hospitality," InuYasha said, "though I'm not sure where that symbol comes from. You'll find Aunt Kaede's very hospitable. You okay?"

"Sure." But I was a little nervous, a little self-conscious. I wasn't used to people who lived in enormous houses and had chauffeurs.

InuYasha opened the gate and we walked up a path of pale pink brick bordered with hydrangea and rhododendron bushes. The hydrangeas were in full bloom, a wonderful, deep purple.

A maid in a gray uniform and a white apron opened the door and InuYasha flung his arms around her and gave her a big kiss on the cheek.

"Mr. InuYasha! Mr. InuYasha! You'll never-" She smoothed her hair, and straitened her small white cap, scolding and giggling at the same time. I looked around the elegant front hall. There was an enormous mirror in an ornate gilt frame, and under it was a marble-topped table. On a silver tray were several letters. I glanced at myself in the mirror and thought I looked okay. I was nearly sixteen. I did not look like a child.

InuYasha introduced us. "Kagome, this is Enju, who's known me since

I was in diapers. Enju, this is my friend, Kagome. Bankotsu's sister.

At least he didn't say Bankotsu's little sister.

Enju welcomed me with a wonderful smile which lit up her whole face, and led us past a large living room to our right, a formal dining room to our left, on past a library full of what looked like thousands of books, and then to a sitting room where an old woman looked up from a wing chair by a bright fire.

"Mr. InuYasha has brought Miss Kagome, Madam," she announced with what sounded like real pleasure.

I stepped forward and took the old lady's hand. It was small and warm and dry. She had had long gray hair combed back into a loose ponytail, and a finely wrinkled face and brown eyes that looked golden in the firelight. The room was a little warm, but I know very old people tend to feel chilly.

"You're good to come," she said. "And now we'll have tea Enju," she said to the maid standing in the doorway.

"Tea would be lovely," I said, sitting in a chair InuYasha had pulled out for me, across from his great-aunt, with a low table between us.

Enju wheeled the tea in on a mahogany tea table, with a beautiful silver service, but also a big glass pitcher of iced tea. The sandwiches were little rounds, each with one slice of tomato. There was a big plate of cookies still warm from the oven.

InuYasha's great-aunt asked me to pour. "And will you be kind enough to call me Aunt Kaede? That would please me."

"I'd love to." She made me feel completely comfortable, and glad to be calling her Aunt Kaede instead of Mrs. Takahashi. I poured tea, and InuYasha passed it to her, and then said he'd rather have iced tea.

I poured tall glasses for both of us. While I was sipping, she looked directly at me, saying, "So you spent last winter in New York."

"Yes. My dad had a research grant for one year."

She nodded. "I'm one of his many patients who are delighted to have him back. The doctor who took his practice was eminently qualified, but he didn't have your father's warmth or authority. He heals my spirit as well as my body. There's not much he can do about my arthritic knees, but he can keep my zest for life from flagging. So does my great-nephew, here. I'll miss him."

"So will I," I said.

"But he has given me the best gift he possibly could- his grant to go to Antarctica- and on his own merits, too. Despite the point which is named for him, Takahashi Point, not many people remember my son, who spent many months in Antarctica and died there."

Her eyes were full of pain, so I murmured that I was sorry, and I, too, was glad InuYasha had the grant. That was politeness on my part. I didn't want InuYasha that far away. On the other hand, Berkley might just as well be as far as Antarctica, for all the chance I'd have of seeing InuYasha there.

She looked at me and smiled. "Coming back to little Thornhill can't be an easy transition. You're still in high school?"

"Yes. Next week I start eleventh grade. One more year after this, and then I start college."

"Are you going to miss New York?"

"Not the city. But I'll miss some of the people I met there. Talking about ideas, big things."

She held out her cup for a refill. "The art of conversation is becoming a lost one. I'm happy that my great-nephew still enjoys batting ideas back and forth. So does your brother. I can see that you come from a family that is not afraid of discussion."

I laughed. "Discussion. And sometimes dissension." I was amazed at how totally at ease I was with the great-aunt of InuYasha's, in this elegant, gracious room. There was just enough furniture to be comfortable, but no clutter. Over the mantelpiece was a portrait of a young woman. I knew it was Aunt Kaede from the eyes, which were the same firelit gold.

"You have beautiful eyes, Aunt Kaede," I said

She laughed and clapped her hands. "Miracles of modern technology! In the old days I'd have had the blind white eyes of cataracts or, at best, those Coke-bottle glasses. I still wake up every morning and rejoice at seeing through my lens implants. Now pour yourself and InuYasha another glass of tea, my dear, and"-she looked at Adam- "Amari will drive Kagome home. He's Enju's husband, and I don't know what I'd do without them and Mushin."

InuYasha said, "If it's all right with you, Aunt Kaede, I'll drive

Kagome home. Mrs. Higurashi was nice enough to ask me to stay for dinner again, and she's a fabulous cook- good enough to make Mushin sit up and take notice."

If I'd forgotten there was still a world where people had chauffeurs, I'd equally forgotten there was still a world where people had cooks.

"Of course it's all right with me," Aunt Kaede said, and then, as though she'd read my mind, "I suspect your mother most graciously does all kinds of things I didn't have to do. Life was gentler."

"Things change," InuYasha said. "Entropy."

To my surprise, Aunt Kaede frowned. "I really don't approve of the Second Law of Thermodynamics. I refuse to believe that the entire universe is on a downhill skid. The theory may be more sophisticated than that of the nineteenth-century positivists who believed that as knowledge increased, each civilization would rise higher than the one before, but it's equally nearsighted. I'll have half a cup of tea, if you'll be so kind."

Well! Aunt Kaede was certainly not boring! This was the kind of conversation InuYasha and Bankotsu throve on, the kind of conversation I'd told Aunt Kaede I'd miss in Thornhill. But maybe I was being unfair.

She finished her tea quickly, and rang a tiny silver bell, which was on the tea tray. In a moment Enju appeared. "InuYasha and Kagome are leaving now, Enju dear. And Kagome might like to take the cookies home."

"I have a younger brother and sister who'd love them." I rose.

Enju said, "Amari drove the car around to the back."

"Splendid. They can leave through the kitchen and Kagome can meet Amari and Mushin. You will come again, my dear? InuYasha must leave tomorrow, and though he's promised me another weekend before he goes to Antarctica, I will be lonely without him, so it would be most kind if you would come to tea."

"I'd love to," I said. "School starts next week for me, too, and I'll have to see what my schedule is."

"Perhaps you could get off your school bus in Clovenford?"

"Well, yes—"

"And Amari will drive you home."

InuYasha said, "Take Aunt Kaede for a walk when you come, Kags. She's supposed to exercise more than she does."

She looked up at me. "You father would appreciate that. My legs do not do well once autumn and winter damp set in."

Enju lead InuYasha and me further back into the house, through a large sun porch that was part greenhouse full of flowers and plants, then through a beautiful kitchen with a restaurant stove, the kind mother's always wanted. Copper pots hung from the ceiling. A tall thin man who had a fringe of brown hair around his head and who looked like a monk was standing at the stove. He turned and smiled as we came in.

InuYasha said, "Kagome, this is Mushin, and he keeps me out of trouble. If I'm about to do something and think Mushin wouldn't approve, I usually don't do it."

"My name is InuYasha Mushin." ((A/N I'M SORRY! But this ties into something later in the story! I know it's weird.)) The tall man shook my hand with a firm, friendly grip. "There are already more than enough InuYashas around here, so everyone uses my last name, and I hope you will, too." He moved from the stove and handed me a large red tin or cookies. "I kept a few out for Madam. It's not easy to whet her appetite. Do come again, Miss Kagome" He had a crisp British accent.

"Oh, I will," I promised.

Enju opened a door that led through a small pantry and to a covered drive between house and garage, where the car was waiting. Enju introduced me to Amari, who looked as Japanese as his name was, with black hair tied up into a ponytail, and extremely dark brown eyes, almost black. Like Enju and Mushin, he seemed delighted to see me and urged me to come back. "Madam's outlived her family and friends," he told me, "and none of the relatives think they live near enough to come by, saving Mr. InuYasha and his family. They come when they can. And your father- he drops I more often than he's needed as a doctor. It's done her a world of good, having Mr. InuYasha here for a few days. I'll look forward to seeing you again, Miss Kagome."

Miss Kagome. Aunt Kaede lived in a world I didn't know much about, a world of formality and privilege. I felt clumsy, but InuYasha seemed to take it all for granted.

Amari said, "The keys are in the car, Mr. InuYasha."

Thanks, Amari. I'll be careful."

We backed into the drive that curved around the house. "Mr. InuYasha. Miss Kagome," I said.

InuYasha shrugged. "I was Master InuYasha until a few years ago, and I really ha to do some major insisting before they were willing to let me grow up."

The trees were a dark green against a sky that was already turning pink. The days were growing shorter. I glanced at InuYasha. "Thanks for taking me to meet Aunt Kaede."

"I knew you'd like each other," InuYasha said. "She's very special, and I don't introduce just anybody to her."

I felt my cheeks go warm. "She does remind me of Grandfather."

"Same quality," InuYasha said. "I'd think it was a generational thing, except that I've known other old people who've closed down and are cranky and do nothing but tell the same old stories and are totally boring."

"Boring she's not. InuYasha, what happened to her son, InuYasha?"

"InuYasha II, my uncle? I told you. An accident in Antarctica."

"What kind of accident?"

"He was out in his Zodiac—"

"His what?"

"Zodiac. They're inflatable, motorized rubber boats, like the ones you see in nature programs on TV. The assumption about InuYasha II was that the motor must have given out and he had no way to get back to land. There are heavy tides and undertows and he may have been swept out to sea."

The way he told me made me want to ask further questions, but it also made me know I shouldn't. So I didn't say anything. I looked at him questioningly, but he was staring ahead at the road.

We were silent for a mile or so, and then he asked, "What did you think of Mushin?"

"I liked him. He kind of looks like a monk."

InuYasha burst into laughter. "Kagome you're amazing!"

"Hunh?" I asked inelegantly.

"Mushin _was_ a monk for about ten years."

"Oh, my! Why did he stop?"

"He had to leave the monastery to take care of his brother, who was at the point of death. Mushin and his brother are twins, born in the Falklands. Hiroshi, Mushin's brother, is a naturalist— he lives in Port Stanley."

The Falklands. I knew they were British islands, which explained Mushin's accent, and that they were somewhere near the bottom of South America, and that there'd been some kind of war about them, but that's about all I knew.

InuYasha went on, "Hiroshi accidentally antagonized a fur seal, and they can be quite vicious when they're angry. It nearly killed him, and Mushin went out to nurse him. He told me that when he came back to the U.S. he felt he no longer had a vocation to the monastery life. He's a great guy. Listen, I really feel good knowing you'll go over to Clovenford. I worry about Aunt Kaede. I'll miss you when I go back to Berkeley. I'm a lousy letter writer, but I'll try to keep in touch. Getting this grant for the internship in Antarctica was beyond my wildest hopes, but it means I'll be away over Christmas."

"Thanksgiving?" I asked

"I'll try to come home I did promise Aunt Kaede another weekend, and my parents are going to want to see something of me."

"Aunt Kaede seems excited—about Antarctica."

"I think she sees it as a kind of completion, that I'm going to finish InuYasha II's journey." He pulled up by the garage, but didn't block Daddy's way. That was thoughtful of him. "Aunt Kaede'll probably talk to you about InuYasha II as she gets to know you better. And what she doesn't tell you, you can ask Mushin—That is, if you're interested."

Of course I was interested. Fascinated.

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So? What did you think? This isn't going to be a very long story. Only about ten chapters. Review and tell me how you liked it. Just press that little button down there. And tell me if I made any mistakes. I'll try to get another chapter up next week, but I'm not sure how that will go. Thanks for reading!

iNuQTpIe


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